A Brief History Lesson

The Iron Age gets its name because it was the period in which people first began making tools from iron. Some of the earliest mining activity is found in the Forest of Dean. Nowhere is this more clearly illustrated than at the scowles around Puzzle Wood. Most of the mining of the period was surface mining, giving us the unique features known in the Forest as ‘scowles’. However, the Forest boasts the only known deep mine of the period, at Lydney Park.

The Iron Age immediately preceded the Roman invasion in 43AD, though the Celtic way of life continued to a large extent alongside the new Roman influences. The Celts were not, as is commonly thought, grunting barbarians living in mud huts; they had a rich artistic, spiritual and civilized lifestyle, which will be richly portrayed in the Cinderbury reconstruction.

The iron, coal and stone industries of the industrial revolution in the Dean provided many other ‘firsts’, including the first tramways, the first passenger railway tunnel, and of course, the first mass-produced tungsten steel at David and Robert Mushet’s Darkhill Ironworks.

The Forest of Dean has not only its natural beauty but also a rich and rare archaeological and industrial history.

It gives the Forest a unique identity and in terms of tourism, a wealth of, as yet, unexploited potential.